 Ukraine, running out of air defense missiles, cities become vulnerable. Ukraine has told its Western backers that munitions for some of its air defense systems could be almost used up by the end of March. The Washington Post has reported, citing U.S. officials. According to the sources, representatives of Kiev made the warning during a secret conference last month. The paper wrote in an article, Ukrainian forces which previously managed to shoot down four out of every five missiles fired by Russia may soon be able to target only one in five, one of the officials claimed. The lack of air defense missiles is going to have a significant effect on life in Ukraine's urban centers, the source said. Russia has been carrying out a large-scale missile and drone campaign against Ukrainian military targets, defense industrial complex facilities and critical infrastructure since the fall of 2022. Russia defense minister Sergei Shoigu said previously that the aim of the attacks was to crush Ukraine's military potential. The defense ministry in Moscow said that a U.S. supplied Patriot air defense system had been destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine's Kharkov region. Last week, it published a video of a successful strike on a Soviet-era S-300 air defense system deployed by Ukraine in Russia's People's Republic of Donetsk. The U.S. officials who talked to the Washington Post warned of catastrophic breakdown of Ukrainian lines in the grimace contingency and the likelihood of massive casualties in the best if Kiev does not get more military assistance from Washington. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has been trying to push through another $60 billion U.S. in assistance for Ukraine since October last year, but has so far been unable to break the resistance of hardline Republicans who are demanding increased funding to secure the border with Mexico. NATO flexes its naval muscles in warning to Putin. Britain's HMS Prince of Wales has been pictured leading a NATO fleet as the military alliance carries out its largest joint drills in decades. According to the Daily Mail, it is noted that the Royal Navy aircraft carrier led 14 vessels in formation through an exercise in the North Sea as part of the Nordic Response 24 drill set on training the alliance's ability to reinforce Europe's northern frontiers. The 65,000-ton ship was seen flanked by the American destroyer USS Paul Ignatius and Spain's ESPS. Almiranti 1 de Borbon frigate as Swedish and Finnish fighters flew overhead, operating around the icy fjords of Norway, the carrier strike group will practice defensive maneuvers and amphibious landings to recapture Allied territory. Exercise Nordic Response 24 is part of the broader exercise Steadfast Defender 24, the largest NATO exercise since the Cold War, bringing together more than 90,000 troops from all 32 countries to train in unison as war edges ever closer to Europe amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is no longer in hiding. After three decades of military retrenchment, following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the breakup of the Soviet Union two years later, NATO has decided to boost its capabilities in response to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine and the threats made by its President Vladimir Putin to countries on Europe's Eastern flank. On January 24, the Alliance launched Steadfast Defender 24, its largest series of military exercises in Europe since the end of the Cold War. Scheduled to last until May 31, these large-scale maneuvers bring together some 90,000 troops from 32 countries and no fewer than 1,100 armoured vehicles, including 166 battle tanks. The exercises are taking place mainly on the plains of Poland and Norway, but also in Germany, the Baltic States, Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Greece and Sweden. This time Medvedev started cursing EU. Romanian gold creates new conflict between West and Russia. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has vehemently rejected the EU's demand that Moscow return gold, that it claims belong to Romania, describing it as impudence. Recently, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on Moscow to send back 91.5 metric tons of gold and cultural artefacts that were exported to the Russian Empire in 1916 to 1917 by Romania. Writing on his social media page, Medvedev, who currently serves as the Deputy Chairman of Russia's National Security Council, stated that I don't even know how to respond to such impudence. The EU has stolen $300 billion worth of Russian assets and is now demanding that Russia return gold to Romania? There is nothing to say but fuck off, Medvedev wrote. Previously, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had pointed out that in 1935, the USSR had already returned a portion of the valuables to Romania as a sign of goodwill. She also recalled that the Soviet Union had forgiven Romania all of its debts for the troubles and destruction that it caused in Russia during World War II when Bucharest was an ally of Nazi Germany. That was despite all the atrocities that Hitler's Romanian allies committed on our land and this is no less than $300 million in reparations, i.e. if converted to today's money, it would be something in the region of $4 billion. Zakharova wrote on her official Telegram channel. The spokeswoman went on to state that if these Romanian debts to Russia and the Soviet Union were expressed in terms of bullion, they would be equivalent to 1,365 to 1,665 tons of gold, which is 20 to 25 times more than Romania's entire gold reserve that was sent to Russia in 1916 to 1917. Zakharova claimed that Romania was now using Rusophobic platforms such as the European Parliament which is ready for any excuse to force onto us its century-old phantom debts. She suggested that Bucharest's demand may be part of a desperate attempt to fix the deplorable situation in Romania's national economy against the backdrop of farm strikes throughout the country.